Running Commentary

Initials B.R.

Initials B.R. is gold-school experimental rap for the aught-age, featuring ornate, deliberate lyrics over dense, anthemic production. It combines the grounded with the atmospheric, the rugged with the transcendent. The result falls somewhere between the inventive bombast of El-P and Company Flow and the efficiency of Black Thought and The Roots. The self-titled debut album is a meditation on private and public music, self-delusion and make believe, Baudeliare and Eliot, con films and musicals.

Ever wanna kick yourself for not getting hip to an artist earlier because it is just TOO badass for your noodle to comprehend? Well, that was me recently when I came across Masshole extraordinaire Luke Kirkland‘s too-big-for-the-boombox hip-hop project INITIALS B.R. and all the ruckus it was raising. Also a member of Depression-era indie ballers MARCONI and post-punk reverb idols NIGHT RALLY, Kirkland comes out of the gate with synth pad swooshes and a chopped-up drum sample with some serious groove muscle. Definitely not what I was expecting, but holy moley this one is a keeper. Songs like “Strike On Back” from his most recent album Initials B.R., released in April of 2011, are swing-heavy and have been known to make even the most hardened pit veterans shake their asses like it’s 1994. Mistah Kirkland produces the beats himself from a massive catalog of old-school soul, funk and roots-rock treats, propelling them with huge and distorted drum tracks that lazily snap and lock into place to get those hips twisting and feet flopping — breakdance bandits will rejoice in Kirkland’s undeniable dance-floor wizardry. Luke ain’t a half-bad rhyme spitter either, and an unwieldy collage of vocal samples backs him up. Unfortunately he has not scheduled any upcoming shows as of today, but rest assured that he will be back, and you already know the Hass is the place to find out when. In the meantime snap up his back catalog and soak in the crunk of his backbeat electroni-hop like sweet lotion for your groovy flesh!
—The Boston Hassle

Initials B.R. (fka Boo Radley Bruises Badly) is an entirely different beast. Luke Kirkland (Night Rally, Marconi) is the everyman behind the curtain; a thinking-man’s MC, waxing poetic over self-assembled beats, and an indie-rock crooner, linking verses with symphonic choruses featuring his booming baritone of a voice. It’s an undoubtedly unique take on hip-hop, but Initials B.R. has the lyrical prowess and vision to make believers out of audiences who would never expect to be moved by this kind of music.
—Boston Band Crush (RIP)